Evangelista

Sunday today and I am in the mood to form a new church.I'm not suggesting a new God or even a new Messiah - I don't even want a new Holy Book as long as I am not expected to believe the literal truth of every word of the current selection .

Not that I mind if others do. I don't even mind them exhorting me to believe as they do . That is the nature of the religious- if they feel they have got it right then they must tell every one.

It is a more subtle thing that I protest-it is the assumption that because I am sitting next to them that I must think exactly as they do about every facet of life. This presumption (in every meaning of the word ) is present at both ends of the spectrum. If you attend a liberal congregation then it is taken as read that you approve of (and demand the approval of others for)  practicing homosexuals as priests ; if you attend an evangelical service then your belief in seven days of creation 30,000 or so years ago is taken as read.

The church I want to found is not just a church which allows variance of opinion- I'm sure that is catered for somewhere.I want a church that actively allows you to be hazy about contentious issues that you don't really want to think about. The sign outside would read "Welcome to Saint ...... - a church proudly within the wishy-washy tradition."

You could attend in the happy knowledge that nobody would be signing any schismatic declarations or agitating for any reforms on your behalf.

I know that there are others like me out there. I only have to think of the playwright Allen Bennet, who was asked when in Hollywood to attend a meeting of the American AA . As the introductions went round the circle people stood up and began "Hello I'm X and I'm an alcoholic/drug abuser etc ",giving a precis of their depths of despair and often ending in tears. When they got to Bennett he stood up and said simply "Hello, I'm Allen, I'm British and we don't do this sort of thing" and sat down again.

Mary-Sue

I was introduced to this concept by one of our registrars . All I can say is--if you haven't come across it before do a google and you will spend many happy hours in cyberspace . A Mary Sue is a character in a story (usually sci - fi or fantasy ) who is completely over the top.. ..they are the young ensign who saves the fleet despite being 15 years old, the young witch with the deeply sexy familiar who defies the dark mage the warrior maiden who captures the heart of the warlord after besting him in battle etc They are thought to be the personification of the author's wish fufillments..(therefore usually attractive,athletic etc)

I was astounded and somewhat moved by the fact that our small anaesthetic department housed so many frustrated authors.The registrar who called my attention to Mary Sue was (like me) a cozy mystery writer who will never see the light of day but I was surprised to find others. I  surveyed our junior registrar , coyly admitting to being a closet fantasy writer. She is a 25 year old 6 foot tall red-headed, blue eyed athlete.I looked at her and asked sourly "so what's your Mary Sue.. a dark haired midget with a squint.?"

(In case you are wondering, my Doctor Tim Mysteries featuring an avuncular anaesthetist will probably never see the light of day)

disrepute

I see that a review of medical bloggers has determined that we can be done for a)possibly allowing patients to be identified and b)possibly allowing our speciality/hospital/department to be recognised therefore potentially "bringing the profession into disrepute". ?OK maybe I understand point number one -nobody likes to know that their doctor thinks that they are a personality disordered no-hoper with a drug seeking habit and a risible line in alibis but ???bringing the profession into disrepute - apparently just by being identifiable at that.

It doesn't augur well for Aussie docs - I personally spend half my time in chronic pain in one of only two tertiary centres in my state.I can name by sight and body odour almost every public hospital pain specialist in the country. Does that mean that I can never bitch, never share angst or anecdotes in cyberspace?---Any budding ethicists please reply.

My sibling is an emergency medicine specialist; you would think that with the thousands of visits a year in every emergency department that anecdotes would be safely anonymous but I wonder....the other half of my practice is anaesthesia in a regional hospital and part of our duty is the compulsory 6 month training in anaesthesia for emergency physicians, ICU specialists and rural GPs.I was taking a new (ED) registrar through the hospital and took her through the ED. Hearing a high pitched yowling coming from a cubicle she remarked "I didn't know Janice lived up this way"....don't ever forget that 60% of health service resources gets taken up by 5% of patients (I made this statistic up)(.A particular favourite is the lady who photographs her bowel actions and carefully pastes them (the photos not the...) into an album ;every week she turns up at the ED and insists on some hapless resident going through the folder with her to spot any abnormalities.Does this anecdote make her identifiable?)